MetroWest Business Digest for Dec. 8, 2018

Saturday

Dec 8, 2018 at 3:01 AM

Avidia donates to A Place to Turn

The Avidia Charitable Foundation recently donated $2,000 to A Place to Turn. This donation is to assist with the cost of purchasing non-perishable items for the A Place to Turn food pantry. Avidia Bank is a $1.5 billion mutual community bank, headquartered in Hudson, with branches in Hudson, Westborough, Clinton, Leominster, Marlborough, Northborough, Shrewsbury and Framingham.

Arch Therapeutics announces presentation

The Framingham-based Arch Therapeutics, developer of novel liquid, gel and solid hemostatic and wound care devices, presented an update on its corporate milestones, plans and timetables at the LD Micro Main Event XI in Los Angeles, California. CEO Terrence W. Norchi provided the following summary. The Japanese Intellectual Property High Court has favorably ruled to affirm the prior trial decision and maintain without any amendments Japanese patent number 5204646, which is part of the intellectual property estate that Arch has licensed globally and exclusively from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Versitech Limited. The company has filed two new patent applications, one of which addresses self-assembling compositions for the treatment of eye disease and the other of which addresses self-assembling compositions for the treatment of inflammation. As part of the technology update, a biosurgical product in development for vascular bleeding, such as occurs in surgical vascular anastomosis procedures with native or artificial grafts, was highlighted. The presentation is available at https://www.archtherapeutics.com.

Spring Bank to host research and development day

The Hopkinton-based Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of viral infections, inflammatory diseases and certain cancers, will host a research and development day today in New York to discuss its expanding pipeline of novel small molecule nucleotides that leverage the Company’s proprietary development capabilities. The research and development day will include presentations by Ira Jacobson, director of hepatology at NYU Langone Center; Adam J. Gehring, biology lead at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute; and Jason Luke, assistant professor of medicine, University of Chicago, specializing in cancer immunotherapy biomarker and drug development for solid tumors. Spring Bank’s management team will also provide an overview of the company’s strategic research and development focus and the progress for the development of its pipeline of multiple product candidates. Presentations will begin at noon. A live and archived webcast of the event may be accessed at https://bit.ly/2ASQ57K. This event is intended for institutional investors, sell-side analysts, investment bankers and business development professionals.

Electric vehicle rebate announced

The Baker-Polito administration recently announced an extension of the Commonwealth’s electric vehicle rebate program, Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles through at least June 30, 2019. The Department of Energy Resources made a $12 million commitment to the program in 2016, which brought the total funding amount to $20 million, and has since provided an additional $3 million to respond to the increased demand for the program. Since its inception in 2014, MOR-EV has issued or reserved more than $23 million in rebates for more than 11,000 cars and has reduced the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 35,000 metric tons annually.